Part 75
Sitemap --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- More interesting items/ideas for a Bioshock Rapture MMORPG --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Part 75 --- --- --- --- --- McClendon Pneumo Inspection and Repair Bot (Also does 'Extractions' of stuck mail cannisters) : There are many miles of Pneumo Tubes in Rapture, and unlike the "Pneumatic Transit (1870)" its too small for humans to directly access to all the sections (many places the tubes have to be slid out for major maintenance/replacement). So, robots with remote cameras and sensors which could move through the Pneumo tubes under their own power were part of the system from the start (fairly well developed technology by the inauguration of the Citywide Pneumo Jet Postal system in 1956). --- --- --- Something I advocate/proselytize (I WANT games to get better and think we are stuck in a rut) : Current game limitations (size, detail, reality) are being caused by game production limits (time, money, available skill, target hardware/software, expectations). How to get past the current difficulties to produce (better?) more detailed games ? Answer - Massive Player participation in producing game assets and incremental reuse/accumulation/improvement of what is created for multiple/additional games. * "Assets" include basic 3D shapes/animations through AI scripting, upto game mechanics coding. * Player's manpower, time, creative/technical skill dwarf any company's resources by many magnitudes * Collaboration - let those who excel in certain tasks do those tasks at all levels of difficulty/specialization. Difficulties : * Idiot-proofing of the required tools is probably a bigger project than creating any 3 AAA games * Extensive Vetting process is needed to control production quality/appropriateness (Player again having to do majority of the work) * Risk adverse game companies balking at the initial cost/uncertainty of the whole Player Created Asset process * Cohesive vision by whoever designs the game (the company presumably) working within the 'committee' style amateur workfoce. Advantages : * Tools created (subject to Player improvement themselves) are applicable to production of many games/genres * Reuse (accumulation) of Assets between different games (massive templating) cuts a major cost (and allows smaller niche games) * Computer Hardware and Software marches forward giving us more to work with. * Tapping into Player creativity - the production becomes a desired activity in itself --- --- --- Amusing "WTF" Mind Control Phrase : BioShock had the 'WYK' thing for Jack, and Sofia Lamb (hearing it not quite right) and not getting many details except about its effectiveness. Somehow she holds it up as some great achievement/goal of being 'selfless' except for the fact that someone IS issuing the commands -- She cant see this simple difference between being 'selfless' and a robot slave - could she possibly be this delusional or the whole thing is just being a sham for her own tyranny ? --- --- --- Giant Spiders - Everyone Likes Giant Spiders : Recalling the scene from Lord of the Rings - Frodo with Shelob... such fun. Of course this shouldn't be real ADAM magnified/enlarged spiders (human DNA/ unguided modification shouldn't have such effect except maybe 'Brute' spiders -- still no bigger than 3 inches long). More of a delusion by some Splicer going through the throes of ADAM withdrawal. See, this is the power of having a system where your imagination is enabled (and alot of the crap that has prevented it before is 'handled' for you, and teamwork to do the bits you cant do yourself.) The work someone(s) does for 'Spiders' can be reused for any other games 'spider' needs (animations in particular). --- --- --- BaS2 (in a Dimension Far Far Away) : Bittersweet ending to BaS2 - Elizabeth of course not actually seeing what a catastrophe she is launching (at all) -- whats going to happen when she frees Fontaine/Atlas, which brings about the Civil War that kills/makes-dead thousands of people and pretty much dooms Rapture (and anyone left). And at the end (when 'Atlas' is about to kill her) she really doesn't know that Sally will be saved (or not brutally Harvested by 'evil' Jack, or by one of a thousand other ADAM crazed Splicers (or be whacked as a Big Sister by Delta or Sigma), or will wind up one of the few taken to the Surface, who might still wind up in a freakshow or in Area 51 (or be subjected to Disco Music). Its just her delusion that anything she does will actually 'fix' anything in this particular dimension (or any other). Next 2K Game - BioShock Ancient - Alexandria, and its Lighthouse, and a Man (Mark Antony) -- so who needs Elizabeth? (after all she doesn't exist any more - right?) - Comstock 3.0 time travels back to when he really CAN play god ("Look you apes at my BoomStick !!!"). Or Not. New pretty Egyptian themed scenery (pyramids!!) and mummies for slaughterable (undead) opponents. Whatever... --- --- --- No Stupid "Gear" : "Extra! Extra!" is a Gear in Columbia equipped in the Hat slot. It causes Voxophones to grant a bounty in Silver Eagles upon collection. This Gear is one of three exclusive Gear power-ups available in the Upgrade Pack DLC for both the Premium Edition and The Songbird Edition of BioShock Infinite. According to game files, it corresponds to a planned Nostrum called Journalist. " OMG Elizabeth!!! My hat is dispensing money again !!! When will this freakshow end!!!! Letting cheap/endless game company merchandizing pollute/foul the game - even more when you have a 'Store' to intrusively advertise and sell Players game stuff to milk the 'credit card' Players, who indulge their egos with things they HAVENT achieved/earned in the game. All the better when previously the company PROMISED they would do no such thing. I simply say NO to such game perverting crap. They can take their "new business model" and stick it up their.... --- --- --- Crash Rapture Economy Disruptions - Unspecified Date Around 1951-1952" : A Recession around ~1951-1952 -- Consider it is an educated guess as to typical real world patterns with hints from what Prentis Mill says. Economic downturns happen because a major industry largely stops (ie-Rust Belt and Car Industry Detroit). City construction (a Rapture 'big industry') would likely slow down/virtually stop when the inflow of people into Rapture ceased (closed off ~1951). Whatever trade happened with 'the sSurface' up til then (except smuggling) also ends. A good size workforce suddenly has no income and the economic effect snowballs, with panic adding to the effect. (in the Microcosm of Rapture there is no 'West' to head for, or regional variations which can absorb that destitute population.) With lowered consumer spending, other weak businesses also fail. Sideeffects - Prentis Mill's AE goes bankrupt (possibly with fewer customers, but probably it had alot of more viable competition by then ) and alot of Mill's has been Money put into the failing banks when requested by Ryan (thus no money to prop-up/improve his RR). We see that ad : "1952 Austen Streamliner" - an indication of a well developed industry - isn't that a sign of the Bathysphere 'craze'/'fad' Mill talked of being well under way around that time ? (Note that evidence may push the 'collapse' as happening in 1952, rather than 1951). So that's a SECOND big industry to close up, adding to the City's unemployment/economic disruptions. The Banks 'crash' adding to the impact upon all businesses - some go bankrupt others downsize. Available Investment Money dries up. --- --- --- Economic Distress in Rapture - The First Incident was NOT around ~1952 ?? : Some suggest that Rapture's big Crash only happened during the Kashmir Incident fallout ... Too late - City is at that point heading into a War Situation - Normalcy IS gone - soon there is NO economy left other than emergency measures by Ryan -- an (eventual) Bathysphere lockdown would be the nail in the coffin for any 'normal economy'. One (Prentis Mill) does not talk of a 'waiting for a craze to end' that verbage is WRONG -- as if it were normal times, when people post Kashmir at that SAME TIME are being slaughtered wholesale in the streets. SO that statemnet CANNOT have been spoken then. Bathysphere system had become the Rapture Metro (the citywide Rapture Transit Authority) - Kincaide probably consolidated many smaller Bathysphere and Trolley lines (it is a historic pattern) making a more flexible/convenient system than the AE was. That process takes time and would have taken place BEFORE the AE bankruptcy/shutdown (to replace it). NOTE - we see Rapture Transit Authority on the Lighthouse entrance (Bathysphere) trip to the Welcome Center in BS1 (a big station there and it is a connecting transit mall) -- but why would THAT be there AFTER Rapture was long cutoff from the Surface ?? (So the 'crash' has to be long before 1958 ..) Paupers Drop Shanty town - the description said AE workers, but also poor people 'under the tracks' before that (ie- Grace - 'Hooverville', etc...)? Out of work AE employees ... others? Likely, because otherwise still working men can afford real apartments/residences for their families. Remember that 'Shanty' town was BEFORE it turned into those rundown remains we saw (BS2 years later). It had been originally through some kind of organized redevelopment (architecture simulated NYC buildings - which BTW takes significant time to accomplish) AE is (long?) abandoned for that redevelopment to have happened (otherwise the AE owns/uses the 'train maintenance' property). Sinclair always looked for a "good deal", so wouldn't he, to build his large "Hotel", use cheap construction labor available after the city construction ended and upon abandoned/cheap property -- and to cater to people with less money available to them ? Grace Holloway has a nice job in the Limbo Room at that point (BS1 in end 1958) in the the redeveloped Paupers Drop (where swanks from Fort Frolic come slumming) and then she talks about bombs going off in Kashmir and the panic/banks/The Limbo closing, etc.. THAT place was not the original Shanty Town she referred to as "worse than the Hoovervilles..." (which I would interpret was from years earlier when it WAS a real shantytown - 'under the tracks' - back when the AE was being built (largely in Rapture's late 40's). - When Else Then ? (economic depression) -- ??? In some Between Time ? The period when there was the Dedication of the Pneumo (Ten Years anniversary 1956) -- that hardly seems a time for the precipitating events - rather more like a celebration of the City's Recovery. (Ryan footed the bill - a strange bit of 'Altruism' - though public works do boost economies - and it probably was profitable anyway). Around that time ADAM was taking off - would anybody have the money to waste on it if the economy was horrible and people had to tighten their belts (and it is pushed as a "use at work", consumer type thing more appropriate to a growing economy). - Major construction in Rapture ended around 1951-1952 when the City was isolated and no more immigrants were coming (and the materials for construction). That would be the time of transition when the workers who had done that work would have to seek other employment and the money being spent had to shift to other things. It is the logical time for 'economic distress', and Prentis Mill's audio diaries talk about a second large industry -- The Atlantic Express -- going through similar upheavals, and his talk of being asked to bail out banks with his own money. So that is a much more likely circumstance for an earlier 'Crash' and economic hardships in Rapture's History. --- --- --- Security Issues with Tablet and SmartPhone Apps : Some of the Apps related to the MMORPG would be just for entertainment value. ( "All things Rapture" ) And so security isn't as important (solo involvement with very little game-changing interactions, mainly just access). Other Apps would earn in-game advancement for a Player (thus have to tie-in closer with the MMORPG Servers), and those are the ones which would need sufficient protections from cheaters. It helps that no real money would be involved within the game (no "Store" etc..), but various account info which might be linked to Player's game payment would obviously need to be protected (even if limited to Single monthly charges). A simple example which 2K botched for BioShock was : Their using the same Username for their Forums as the in-game Account name - thus giving any hacker half the info to start working on breaking passwords and thus access to a Players game account. To thwart cheaters, it is possible these days to constantly modify game executables in major ways every time they are to be used (helped by increasing download speeds) and randomization of Mini-Game scenarios with some Server checking to block the usual hacks (monitoring data flows and injecting 'wins' and such). Then the constantly required effort by even expert hackers just isn't worth the rewards (and no easy be distribution of hacks to the 'script-kiddee' cheaters). --- --- --- Prison - its Doesn't Take a Genius... : Take a look how Persephone (a proper prison setup) is laid out. Guards have secure control of all inmate movements, regiment their every activity, cells to isolate and restrict inmates whenever required. Some prisons are more open but still have strong points and armed guards that patrol in force (and NO armed inmates). Guards would 'guard' the access and also oversee operation of the whole facility (like how the inmates get fed, etc...) Instead, what is shown at Fontaine's (the Derp-land playground for wayward criminals) is all a very contrived situation designed to fail by the writers (the whole plot was to allow gunplay and violence for the Player and unauthorized visitors to enter and walk around freely - something that realistic prisons don't generally allow). They (the game 'writers') could at least (to justify such a stupid setup) have included (in the plot) some contrivance of a bomb/mechanism put there by Ryan (since they HAVE to make him an evil meanie). It would be intended at some point to explode to create an accident/unfortunate catastrophic failure of the building, and hence to drown the whole place and kill all those 'unfortunate/misunderstood' inmates (THAT would be a reason to not bother setting it up as a proper prison -- because it would be intended as a tomb).. Fontaine's monument destroyed and Atlas dead - two birds with one stone. --- --- --- Little Brothers Turned into Big Daddies ? : If Jack could (from scratch) be grown to full size in less than 2 years and be thoroughly conditioned , then why not use Little Brothers (orphans) instead of inmates (who likely would have been more difficult to condition ??) Perhaps the cost/difficulty of what was done for Jack was too expensive/intensive to do on a larger scale. Using existing children, instead of starting with an embryo (which wouldn't be impossible to obtain, if needed). Maybe the full/greater conditioning would be impaired (except they did do that on grown people already). 2 years also could just be too long for needed 'Protectors'. later Lamb with her 'plan' might have more time ? --- --- --- I read one reviewer commenting about the AI for Elizabeth in Infinite BS... : Said all the hyped AI (BTW its just a bunch of canned scripts, not real AI) which for a while gave a little feeling of a character being more human (more than the Player's Avatar which the reviewer said was basically a 'hand with a gun' along with some canned verbiage). They wanting to have more of it, but actually how little of it/limited it really turned out to be. Anyway, consider if the types of scripts they made for Elizabeth were genericized and applied to people (NPCs) in New Rapture and to the Splicers out there in the Ruins. This MMORPG is trying to move away from the 'shoot everything' mentality, so will need such interactive AI things to work much better. The Infinite BS game makers have talked about how much work it took them to create Elizabeth's behavior (something about X lines of scripting) particularly in that one little (Battleship Bay) area. In reality such scripting ISN'T that complicated or sophisticated. Again, having many many players adding to such scripting to vastly multiply that kind of thing - by magnitudes - then it becomes more apparent why this Player Created Asset method would be the way to achieve what game companies simply cannot afford to create. --- --- --- No Seriously ?? : BaS2 has one of the dimmest scenes (yes, hard to outdo Infinite BS...) - Daisy Fitzroy and Luteces discussing how Daisy should let Elizabeth kill Fitzroy (while pretending to kill Finks kid/child, no less) just so she (Elizabeth) can become the good goddess of the interdimensions. Seriously, That Daisy did not that very second on hearing that BS from these pair of tricksters did not simply 'bust a cap' into them both... Contrivances ontop of contrivances ontop of BS... (being DLC and the studio winding down is NO EXCUSE). --- --- --- Looking at Various Places/City Views Seen in the Game - Caricatures : But then the real Rapture, to maintain its appearance of the Modern World and Big City look, would have to largely be a caricature, as a 'City' of 20000-40000 is still (in reality) not even a large 'Town'. Overbuilt Buildings - Height added (even Real World buildings did that for 'show') Possibly some of those 'Wales Brothers buildings were TOO leaky and had to be abandoned (requiring more to be built for the original purpose, and the leaky ones sidetracked for other purposes...). - Most of these buildings are smaller than you think. Strong sunlight goes almost completely black through 600 feet of perfectly clear water. The right building can be scaled by the people in it look ~60 feet away. The middle building distance is about 3X as far (~180 ft). The far distant buildings (look about twice again as far), with the buildings still well visible (say < 400 ft) through the murky water. This means the buildings are not as large/tall, with floors far fewer than they might appear (Extra 'window' rows are for show, which is expected in Rapture) and the upper 'towers' are probably decorative (interiors too small to be habitable/usable - except maybe for utilities and other unpressurized purposes). This (buildings being smaller) would also alleviate any ocean current pressure which is 800X stronger than wind pressure (even if just current turbulence - even when most of Rapture is protected by the side of the volcano). The simplest clue of all is : that just about EVERY level you've ever been inside in the game was squat and sprawling with limited elevations (max ~8 stories is about it for the Welcome Center elevator area and the upper floors in Artemis Suites you cannot get to). --- --- --- Sinclair seemingly Turned into a Robot ?? (BS2) : "It is quite evident that Lamb's project had gleaned staggering results," Is it ?? Or was Sinclair's 'conversion' just another lie ? First - it is Quite a bit too fast to get Sinclair into a suit (just the work to do that isn't trivial, assuming they had the suit parts all ready to go, and then it was somehow accomplished at THIS facility ?? This is not Point Prometheus). Fitting, Surgery, Genetically alterations(to have the strength to move/run in the heavy suit) Whatever mechanics/electronics/physiological things are needed... And then, to get him all conditioned for such 'Control' (the training just to work the suit is significant) to be controlled as much as he is shown to be ... 'will-less' (remember that other existing 'controlling' effects, like hypnotize, are temporary). It is rather difficult to run a body on remote control to do all the fancy (and quick) actions that the 'Sinclair' Alpha does. Some kind of 'drone' remote control (except about 20X as complex as any existing drone is even today - human body movements/balance/coordination are pretty complicated ). So unlikely it is 'remote control'. Some variety/variant of Hypnotize? But that previously largely was motivation ("Daddy Now Friend !!"), not detailed commanded actions - the Hypnotized Big Daddy coordinated itself and carried out typical behaviors/actions, often just the target selection was different. The "Enraged" Splicer just goes after anything near itself ... And his mouth (free on Sinclair so he can do his 'swan song' for the plot) - it IS subject to your body's motor control, so NOW how to differentiate between that and other parts of the body which he somehow ISN'T allowed to control (need a Dr Strangelove moment where Sinclair trips himself when he retains control of some part of his body and tries to thwart Sofia Lamb)?? Shouldn't he be able to resist everything else as well .... that aspect just adds another layer of difficulty of such control happening. (If he'd been quiet and not able to speak, then it would have been more consistent -- but then you wouldn't have got his empathetic radio messages). Could it be some kind of Voice control (?) telling him what to do ("lift your right leg and bend the knee a little, place your foot forward and now shift your balance weight onto that foot and now lift the left leg and bend it forward..." --- it would take all day just to get down a flight of stairs.) And all this while Sinclair's mind is still there to jam it ? ( Heh - he does that trick of humming loudly so he can't hear the voice "LA LA LA LA LALA ... I cant hear you you, Sophia you !@#$% !@#$%^!!!!", or scream singing some ditty like "RISE RAPTURE RISE!!!!", etc... He could even rattle her by shouting ' "I can feel I'm getting control back Sophia, I'll be comin' for YOU !!! ' And you'll soon look flatter n' a swamp frog run over by a car tire !! " ) Unless it is done by some complex multi-mind weirdness - Simpler now to have Lamb Possess the Alpha/Sinclair/whatever like we did the Little Sister previously - Oops, except Sofia doesn't have Eleanor's powers and genetic links as was with the Little Sisters. - Add ALL those ways up and its pretty unlikely to implement and make what they implied workable, and do it all so ridiculously fast. How Fast ? How long between the time Sinclair was left in the Train ? At FF you still heard him guiding you, and when you went into Outer Persephone he's admonishing you to get Eleanor out of the isolation room - "What are you Waitin for ???", etc... Radio Messages Persephone "Signal Breaking Out" So somewhere later Sinclair is captured (how long were you out unconscious after Eleanor was smothered and you were 'dying' on the table... Cant be too long or you WOULD be dead.) All the "You Become a Little Sister" stuff happens - but it again can't be too long - if you are supposed to be 'dying' from the Pair Bond being broken. Then you (Delta) explore half of Inner Persephone before you see Sinclair as an Alpha before he races off to be locked in the Warden's Office. How long a time was it to that point? Hour(s), less? First time we (as Jack) got ADAM, how long were we unconscious -- when the shock hit our system ?? (Heh - System Shock ...) Sinclair wasn't an ADAM user, that we heard of. Subtract that time as Sinclair being too 'out of it'/unresponsive for 'conditioning'. Sinclair also mentions that Sofia tortured information out of him ... "bomb codes" (yet another odd thing...). All before they can even put him in the 'suit'. Anyway, more and more time delays before this alleged 'conversion' supposedly is completed. - A Suggested alternate explanation : Lamb was just pulling one of her psyche manipulation games, and that WASNT Sinclair in the Alpha Suit that Delta chases. All we hear is a radio link (no face as usual) of his voice and he thus could be anywhere (and NOT in the Suit). He could be whacked out on drugs and made to think a simulators TV he's watching is him in the suit (to account for the few comments he makes - most of which are actually his comments on what Delta is doing - he just has to see that ) . This is possibly alot simpler explanation than THAT oh-so-quick "Turned Sinclair into a Pet Robot" that Sofia claims to have done. It is just one of her minions in the Alpha suit running about so adeptly. Remember with Sofia Lamb its the psychological manipulation that is all that matters. Its also safer - just what Sofia needs is for the conditioning to FAIL and there to be two mad Killing Machines after her. - Next discussion - WTF, Sofia gave the Key to 'Sinclair' just so that Delta could take it ?? Why should she GIVE her Sinclair pawn this thing just so Delta could catch him and take it ? Just more mind games ?? SO Sofia wanted to escape Rapture. Maybe she was running out of minions/Alphas, and the Little Sisters were getting surly, or she learned that an alliance of Other City Factions were soon to be coming for her... If she wanted to take Eleanor with her, then she probably still continued with her First Utopian delusion, otherwise have nothing to show for her 'Big Project', as she was forced to "Get out of Dodge". --- --- --- Profiling Splicers (Genetic Research Camera again) : Plasmids make strange distinctive squelching sounds - is that the information the Genetic Research Camera actually read/picked-up/processed to determine the subjects 'weaknesses' ? It works from a long distance so it probably doesn't work off the subjects fragrant emanations (or direct genetic sampling). Various extended spectrum reading have been previously discussed. Its kinda hard to read a 'genetic' profile from a distance (even today it takes a whole laboratory) so there probably would be more indirect clues/evidence which it used to discern/profile the targets Plasmid/Tonics. I've talked of 'pseudo-psi' type powers that many Plasmids may make use of, and those could be detected (and different Plasmids used different ranges of spectrum or signals which could be used to determine what the subject under observation possessed. The Genetic Research Camera could have some interesting 'biologic' components sensitive to such things. Heck, part of the 'evidence' could be the appearance and manner that the Splicer moves, with many minor details adding up to assess what kind it was, from a bunch of known profiles. --- --- --- Melted Basalt as a Construction Material : Ryan's own high-power technology - and cheap (enough) power from Hephaestus, and the availability of this material -- the type of volcanic/seabed rock from Rapture's geographic region (tectonic plate spreading zone) is generally Basaltic. This is basically what the Plasma Tunnel Boring/melting machines would create (though the material is melted in place and becomes the water-proof lining and support for those tunnels - allowing them to be constructed cheaply. Such a material could be used for prefab sections for new above-seabed buildings (manufactured in well controlled interior conditions - facilities at the Port of Rapture). Used for various shaped building struts/slabs and other components which otherwise would be made of concrete. A fiber like material can be made from melted Basalt which is used as insulation (like fiberglass). Aggregate for high strength concrete can be better made with the qualities required (concrete's compression strength largely comes from the strength/quality of the aggregate used and how well the cement sets. --- --- --- U-DONT-INVENT - The Fabrication System : Every item in the game should be fabricatable (with varying difficulties) and its Attribute data to include a list of materials/parts/components (Formula) from which it might be made ('might' because of the skills/tools involved and a possible failure/breakage probability). Some complex items have sub-assemblies (components) which might be common to many types of items (ie- nuts and bolts), while others have highly customized parts. The part/component Attributes are also used for various damage interactions (like when something is blown to pieces and the parts fly in different directions). Likewise, every item should have a list of materials/parts/components it can be broken down into. Note that the act of being fabricated can greatly decrease the amount of the original material used as it is cut/bent/filed/molded/modified/welded/melted/etc... Components are treated as units but still have their own quality and damage attributes, but retain a standard configuration (where they can be reused for another object), while breaking something down into base materials largely depends on the bulk of the item, and is destructive of any higher form. This requires refabrication to build them back up into component form. SO just about anything you bring back from The Ruins has some value, if not simply for its use as scrap or as something to practice fabrication skills on. With Rapture being cut off from the Surface in 1952, there was alot of recycling and reusing of items and materials. --- --- --- Splicers be Clever : One of the potential programmed behaviors for Splicers would to take advantage of the terrain they live in and to modify it (and make it all 'homey' for themselves and a death trap for you).. Changes would be applied to the Auto-Generated/existing terrain by Splicers - placed (appropriately/validly) as if they had been there for awhile (its part of the Auto-Generation detailing system). Pre-building/placements would use many Templates for adding various adaptive assemblies of additional props and rearranged existing props and modifications to objects/rubble in the scene -- All tailored to the type/number of Splicers, their faction and state of existance, local circumstances, etc.. * Setting Various traps and defenses * Camouflaging and blocking openings * Bringing in and Hiding their appropriate goodies/supplies/equipment (specifics modified by nearby environment) * Clearing/arranging paths they use through generic wreckage and rubbish * Marking their territory in the various creative ways Splicers do * Setting up whatever they use to make a living/survive/entertain themselves. Other actions would be done later upon things the Player has brought or done which intrude in the Splicers 'Space' (its part of goal behaviors Splicers are driven by). Splicer NPCs behavior would have them doing normal things until the Player intrudes and things start to get interesting. * Filching stuff you left untended and/or setting up some booby traps * Hiding from you or leading you away from where 'their' stuff is or causing distractions/diversions * Setting up Ambushes or just watching you pass by. * Friendly Splicers might trade or just talk (Splicers have more options than just scream and attack as in other one dimensional 'shooter' games) You think games cant do such things ? It not that they cannot, it is that the game companies can't do a proper job with the priorities they have and their budget limitations (yes even when they have $100,000,000). Again the Player Created Asset system allows behavior scripting to be aggregated over time (with alot more programmers/scripters participating) and to grow to many times as much as any company ever produced. --- --- --- The Cult Of Ryan (In Ryan We Trust) : The confidence in the 'organizing principle' of Rapture is quite important psychologically for its Citizens. Unfortunately, we mostly only hear from atypical whiners 'as evidence' in the game. Anything the Majority of the people in Rapture felt about Ryan's decisions/actions was meager at best. The writers trap themselves because they employ today's viewpoints/ways of thinking - rather that of people who came out of the Great Depression and WW2, and then only special people who where filtered to actually get into Rapture. Instead they play to the players (and their own) sympathies and expectations, which would be largely foreign to any real people of Rapture to form their plots. Actions to exterminate Atlas and his terrorists/anarchist would have the majority in Rapture applauding, if not DEMANDING such action. People don't like having their lives (work, safety) disrupted and weren't so namby-pamby about how such things should be handled. --- --- --- Markers Marking your Trail : Running about when things are happening fast in a maze of terrain (you haven't been in for very long) can be disorienting. With this MMORPG game, where making a hasty retreat is usually a frequent occurrence (and wise), keeping an exit path ready (and one, which if you clear it previously, wont have 'Respawned' opponents Auto-magically replaced just a minute after you previously fought through it.) Solution : Placing markers of various kinds to mark a path or something that can be a distinctive landmark seeable from a distance. * Paint leaving a distinctive mark (a custom graffiti asset for your 'Team') White paints are usually cheap. * The old Trap Rivets with their bright light beams (just the lights, minus the 'smart' guts that made them work in the 'old' days). * Colored flares (nice flamey rendering effect) Most of these markers go away with time (some stick around a while so you might see other Players marks in frequently traveled spots. Beware some Splicers like to pull tricks on Strangers (like (re)move/change their markers). --- --- --- Interactions Between 'Occupant' NPCs (for That 'More Detailed Behavior') : As everything is Templated and additional objects/things of all kinds are meant to be added in the future (AND stay compatible), the scripting which controls the NPC characters makes use of of internal messages which get broadcast to other NPCs nearby (kind of like The Sims mechanism) so they can 'be aware' and react appropriately. More specific 2-way interactions (which both interacting NPCs have to support - with a default reaction inherited) would allow longer more varying interplays between NPCs (fitting the circumstances and local situation instead of being 'hand-crafted' for each and every location in game). Same for 'event actions' : example - when a bomb goes off, most people will run the other way, or stand and watch, etc... (watch the Booker Psycho Video to see how pathetic Infinite's NPC behavior is despite their much Touting and Hyping their 'advancements') Such Interactions would happen in the background alot, with NPCs going about their normal behaviors in the places they live and work and play. Example would be : One NPC walks up to a newsstand, buys a paper from the NPC manning it, and walks away (back to whatever it normally does). Now it wouldn't do this over and over every 5 minutes like in Most MMORPGs, but would go on to do other routine/appropriate activities (there being many created by the Players - many generic like the 'buy a paper' script which many of the city inhabitants could use at different times and places.) Such scripts invoke functions like finding where the nearest newsstand is, and then walking over to it along a valid path, avoiding obstacles, etc.. and when completed go back to whatever is next for the NPC to do. So if that Newsstand the next day was gone, that NPC (who routinely wants a daily paper) would go seek out another Newstand in another place (NOT keep doing the same rote robot script until the end of time that most MMORPGs do). Such things going on in the background/distance don't have to affect the Player in any way, but would make the gameworld seem a little more alive than the animatronics at Disneyland/Journey to the Surface. Having them change their behavior to match current situation - that's the complex part, which results in a great volume of well-made scripting being required. --- --- --- --- --- . .